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CSU to conduct national DVM survey on antimicrobial resistance, empirical use

Fort Collins, Colo.-Officials at Colorado State University (CSU)
want to know all about the impact the antimicrobial resistance issue is
having in private practice.

At presstime, officials mailed a survey to 14,000 private practitioners
in small animal, equine and food animal practice.

The goal, according to Dr. Paul Morley, director of biosecurity at CSU,
is to accumulate the most comprehensive data to date on veterinarian attitudes,
empirical uses and information sources about antimicrobial uses.

"This is in response to general concerns that federal regulatory
agencies have proposed increased limitations on the antimicrobial use in
animals, but in our opinion, there is very little information on use practices
in veterinary medicine," Morley explains. "We would like those
decisions to be fact-based and science-based in the decision-making rather
than conjecture."

Want to know

The survey queries veterinarians about whether they are concerned about
antimicrobial resistance in practice, where they get information on antibiotic
resistance and how they decide what drug doses to use, he says. "Also,
we would like to know how veterinary medicine and other veterinarians fit
into the whole picture of antimicrobial resistance."

Morley adds, "The second part of the survey, deals with their specific
empirical use practices. They are given a series of scenarios of individual
animals with certain conditions, and asked what drugs would they use and
at what dose," he says.

Tabulation of the survey will allow Morley and others involved with the
project to break the data out by practice types to derive conclusions about
antibiotic use practices.

Morely adds, "We have good response to the concept, but it will
all come down to the end on how many veterinarians will respond."

The issues which have surfaced over the last few years on antibiotic
resistance are very important to society, he says. Therefore, the survey
would be a start to answer questions about antibiotic uses in veterinary
medicine.

Morley explains, "There is language that has started to creep into
reports, for example from the World Health Organization, that point a damning
finger at veterinary medicine, suggesting that people involved in agriculture
and people involved with veterinary medicine do not use antimicrobial drugs
prudently. Our quest is to obtain some factual information about that."

Results in early fall

The survey was mailed to practitioners in April. Morley hopes participating
veterinarians will return the surveys to CSU in early May; and researchers
would then work to tabulate the results and start disseminating initial
results as early as this fall.

The survey has been funded by CSU and is being conducted in conjunction
with other projects focused on antimicrobial resistance.

Morley explains, "This is just one part of our investigation of
the issue. Other work funded by the United States Department of Agriculture
and Food and Drug Administration is looking at risk factors for development
of antimicrobial resistance as well as the ecology of antimicrobial resistance
in food producing operations. We are also working on developing a monitoring
program for antimicrobial drug use in the veterinary teaching hospital at
the college," he says.